Wednesday, February 26, 2003

U.N. Team Discusses Human Rights in Iran "TEHRAN, Iran (AP)--A United Nations group investigating human rights abuses said Wednesday Iran was jailing dissenters for their political beliefs and restricting access to lawyers....
...Rights groups have charged that dozens of reformist journalists and political activists have been jailed over the past three years for criticizing the rule of unelected Islamic hard-line clerics.
He said the prison system's use of solitary confinement and alleged unofficial detention centers were areas of key concern.
Joinet said the absence of lawyers was especially striking. ``Many convicted criminals are not aware of the duties of a lawyer and state-appointed lawyers are insufficient in number and not paid sufficiently,'' he said...."This was somehow good & hopeful but I believe that still they didn't see many more important things or that's better to say some others didn't let them see...

It's a while that we are hearing sad & shocking news about the recent noise-signals from government that are very environment damaging & have irreparable effects on health of everybody; actually I couldn't find any formal news about this anywhere but one of the radio stations from out of country that is really trusty, reported that it's proved & is just like generally killing people...anyway, they were hardly trying to give people information but still many ones don't know anything & many others don't think about it as an important & serious problem, but it is!
Oh...doest it really worth?? so much damage to prevent the population from the opposite mass media?

Iran to sell hidden nude masterpieces"Tehran Museum director says parliament approved sale of 15 to 30 Western works in bid to build up art collection....
...Iran has decided to sell several nude paintings it bought in the 1970s during the shah's rule, masterpieces which have been kept out of public view since the Islamic revolution on moral grounds...."That sounds pretty foolish, but the only think we can do is to feel sorry to lose these masterpieces...

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

The election campaign of different political parties are still continuing but without any enthusiasm. And everyone seems not to even think about it. As I read somewhere, some opinion polls & some predictions shows that about 60% or more of the ones who can vote will not do it...Although streets are full of commercial papers & billboards & posters on the walls, but it seems that they are frozen & people don't even see these things...yeah, sometimes It's better not to see....

You've come to the worng place...How much I sometimes feel weak & unable to explain the situation with details clearly, Iranian site does it in the best ways, there are some parts of one of new articles...
"..........But the reality is that the circumstances of Iran under the mullahs cannot be compared to either Taliban Afghanistan or Iraq under Saddam Hussein. While Iran is still accused of state sponsored repression, censorship and civil rights violations by a variety of international organizations, no one with any exposure to Iran would claim that the situation for Women is akin to that of Afghanistan or other neighbors such as our ally Saudi Arabia. In fact, over the past few weeks, legislation has been passed permitting to drive public buses and taxis. Furthermore, the Iranian government has never used weapons of mass destruction, slaughtering large groups of its own people.

....The fashionable northern half of Tehran is the domain of the young female. With an estimated two thirds of Iran's population under the age of thirty, the streets are alive with color and sound. Eminem was everywhere this summer, bootleg copies of his tape blaring from car radios throughout Tehran. Just a few years ago even playing traditional Iranian music at any audible level was a punishable offense, but these days young traffic cops can be caught bobbing their heads to passing Western rhythms.

But Tehran is a city divided. There is no clear landmark that draws the line between north and south, but as one descends the city, towards the side of Mt. Damavand, the realities of "uptown" versus "downtown" become painfully obvious...."

You can go to news quakes site to find out where in the world makes more news,(from hoder)...I think that some months ore more that the matter of Iraq is over for the world, It will be the time for Iran to have news quakes,won't it?

I don't wanna see children die no more
So I gotta make a stand
Can you hear my voice?
Taking a life is only God's choice
I don't want blood on my hands It seems that Ms Dynamite & Chris Martin did a brave work & showed that they care about world's matters, I think, that is really valuable that they said what they want, but there are limitations everywhere...Anyway, because we have put down our satellite dish I couldn't see the shows of Grammy award & the Brit award, but I read news & think that winners were chosen in the best way...

Sunday, February 23, 2003

About one week later an election will be held in Tehran, the election is for the Shorahye Tehran, I don't really know what is it in English, actually I don't know what is it in Farsi, just know that this is one of so many other games that government play & they are Jack of all trades & even themselves don't know what they are supposed to do...Anyway, now in Tehran all streets' walls are full of commercial papers & many ones that contains some women are having their election campaign, but as everyone predict there won't many persons who vote, because most of people have lost their interests & have no motivation to vote for a group like many others that came & went & did nothing for changing things & even made everything worse...People won't never be fooled again by every rubbish things that government does...

Saturday, February 22, 2003

"......cancelled....Theran Rock Festival....
.............................
Turning back is Tao movement..........
being Weak is Tao practice............
"The Thousands of Things are born of Being"...........
Being is born of Nothing...................."

That's all, as I was expecting this concert is cancelled; it seems that most of concert's works were done & they were only waiting for the permission, but unfortunately they couldn't do it. Actually there were four of the most famous Iranian Rock groups that were going to have performance in the concert, & I think that It could be a great concert because a while ago in the official site , Theran360 there was a competition between songs of these underground Rock groups that got very popular, & this four groups are the winners of that competition...Also there is a report from the last meeting of the concert's makers & singers in cappuccino magazine(Farsi)...Anyway, I was hoping to get the ticket & got to concert but things went wrong...As it is written in that report one of the problems was the name of "rock" in the poster & tickets of concert that caused not having permission, yeah; actually the main problem is that government see music as an evil & tries to mute the sounds...

Friday, February 21, 2003

Thursday, February 20, 2003

I have run out of Internet account & all shops are closed these holidays, just could borrow about ten minutes of my brother's Internet to publish these posts...& he is coming minute by minute to check if my work is over...Fuck, he is a real stingy boy...

Report: Plane Crashes in Iran with Over 250 Aboard"— TEHRAN (Reuters) - A passenger plane with over 250 people aboard has crashed in southeastern Iran, Iranian state television said Wednesday.
The Antonov plane was traveling between the cities of Zahedan and Kerman when it lost radio contact around 5:30 p.m. local time, it said.
A government official earlier told Reuters that the plane was carrying around 290 people."It seems a bit strange!!! Still the reason of the crash isn't found out, but they are searching for more information...

This morning when I woke up & looked out of window everywhere was white & snowed up & there was a heavy snowing; my mom told me TV has reported that all schools & high schools were closed. You know most of the times; it is like this when snow is falling heavily or settled on the ground, because of transplantation problems, actually in these situations there is a real mess in the city & Tehran changes to a hell; streets that are crowded & like jungle in normal days, these days are intolerable¡K
Anyway, I got very happy by the holiday & decided to show my happiness by going to bed again, so I slept to about the time I usually come back from school, although at last I was getting sick of sleeping but at least I could make amends to other damn days that I have to wake up at six o¡¦clock¡K
¡Kunfortunately, snow wasn¡¦t enough to make a snowman or even playing in the snow, so I stayed at home & stayed near heater, listening to music & drinking tea for hours, what I really love to do in snowy days; & had a relaxed say. You know, one of the factors that has an important effect on my mood is whether¡Kit really does, for example in snowy weather I feel calm, rain makes me sensitive¡Kcloudy weather takes depression¡K& sun gives me energy & good feeling¡K
Anyway, it¡¦s the last of week & we have two days as holiday¡KI wish a snowy & calm holiday for myself ƒº

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Iran film wins Perdana Award"KUALA LUMPUR: Iranian movie Under The Moonlight pocketed another award when it won the coveted Perdana Award at the end of the two-day inaugural Kuala Lumpur World Film Festival here last night.
The movie, with its content of peace, humanity and non-discrimination, had won the Best Critics' Award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival....."

Monday, February 17, 2003

Living life neither here nor there"In Australia today, 277 Iranians, including women and children, are awaiting removal. With war looming in Iraq, Iranian detainees in Australia face an uncertain future. Ruddock's office readily admits to aggressively targeting Iranians for removal...." That's too bad that Iranian immigrants always have problems, It was some months ago that so many Iranian were in US prisons & so many were returned, & also there are always lots of worries with Iranians in other countries...

Today was a really beautiful day, we had snowing all day, a great snowing...in school I couldn't notice the lesson at all, I just wanted to watch snowing through the window...that's what I really love...so the snowing was so hard & we expected schools to be closed for tomorrow, or at leas in some areas of Tehran, so I was really exited but it's about some hours that It has stopped snowing, I just wish that at light we have that beautiful white diamonds again. But generally I wish that it snows more, because it's just about one year to the end of this long winter, & I want a winter to be always white & cold...

Sunday, February 16, 2003

"The international jury of the 46th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected as World Press Photo of the Year 2002 a black & white picture of the Los Angeles-based Armenian photographer ERIC GRIGORIAN, represented by Polaris Images. In the photograph, surrounded by soldiers and villagers digging graves for victims of that morning’s earthquake, a young boy clings on to his dead father’s pants as he squats by the grave where his father is about to be buried. The picture was taken on 23 June 2002, after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck the Qazvin province of northwest Iran, killing more than 500 people in some 12 villages."

Iran 'renews' Rushdie death sentence "Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards have renewed the death sentence on British author Salman Rushdie issued 14 years ago by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khatami said in 2001 the death sentence should be seen as closed The hardline military organisation, which answers directly to Iran's current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that the original fatwa, issued in 1989 following the publication of Mr Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses", was still valid...." It seems that these crazy men haven't decided to stop doing such foolish things & wanna make everybody hate them & their acts, I don't really understand what else do they want & why are they speeding up their crazy acts, instead of making things better...

Saturday, February 15, 2003

It seems that the whole world is trying hard to stop President Bush to start a war against Iraq...Actually, I admire this great action of so many people everywhere in the world, that show the worth of peace that makes people demonstrating, but I don't understand what can be wrong with a politic war that have advantages for many ones, specially Iraqis, of course in case that war doesn't injure people...I don't know, perhaps I'm wrong or there are some things I don't know; anyway I'm just waiting to see what will happen to my country's neighbor Iraq, & also what will happen to this strange world that is facing these huge & complicated problems...

America So Beautiful...It's a new movie that is now playing in the US... of course I haven't seen it but I read about it & also saw an interview with the director of movie who was an Iranian boy, I think it must be interesting. Also one of the popular Persian singer, Mansour (I don't like him as a singer at all, his rubbish songs just make me sick) acts in this film. Here is also a synopsis I found in the official site of the movie:
"America So Beautiful follows the odyssey of a group of Iranian immigrants in Los Angeles, trying to find their place in America amidst the unfolding of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. HOUSHANG believes his ticket out of his uncle's Persian market is to become a partner of a glittery disco - if he can just come up with the money. As Houshang struggles to pull his family into the deal, he decides to show them a piece of the dream by taking them out for an evening at the disco. They instead encounter a night of surprise and transformation, filled with hilarity, pain and revelation. Houshang’s desperate night of assimilation becomes a moving search for identity , culture and an affecting dissection of the American dream..."

Friday, February 14, 2003

…So the holidays are over, but I don’t feel like going to school at all! I can say that somehow it was one of the worst holidays of my life because I didn’t do anything special, interesting or useful. I just didn’t understand how it went…the only advantage was having time to stay up & wake up late! (Oh, for sure you’ll think what a lazy girl I am)
Anyway, my tiredness haven’t gone away & still I’m not ready for studying, (what else?!)…but I’m hopeful that there is just about one month to Norooz(New year), & that’s great…I’m waiting for those days, waiting for spring to come & something that make my life fresh…

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Valentine's Day crackdown in Iran "...TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iranian police have launched a massive crackdown on Valentine's Day celebrations in a bid to limit Western influences.
Shops were ordered to remove heart-themed decorations from their windows and Valentine cards were confiscated.
Plainclothes police began the crackdown on Monday after Valentine products inundated shopping malls in wealthy north Tehran and young people began to show great interest in marking the day.
Valentine's Day and its tradition of exchanging gifts with the opposite sex contradict conservative morals in a country where contact between unrelated men and women is strongly discouraged..."Actually I got a little surprised by reading this piece of news, because yesterday that I had gone out, I saw all shops that sell valentine card, chocolate, dolls & the stuff open, & also full of young girls & boys, just like other years...so, I don't know, perhaps this cracking down started today! or it is a little bit bombastic!...anyway, no matter what they wanna do, but Iranian boys & girls, do not obey them to be different from other young people...valentine will be held here in Iran.

This sign and others like it were much in evidence throughout Westwood as roughly 1,000 members of the Persian community marched down Wilshire Boulevard, deploring the 24-year-old Islamic government in Iran and applauding the United States for its hardline stance against such regimes.
"The people of Iran want a referendum monitored by the United Nations to decide their form of government," said Roxanne Gangi, a member of Iranians for Democracy and one of the organizers of the event. "They don't want the Islamic regime anymore and we're here to voice that."

Armed with signs, banners and bullhorns, protesters moved from the Federal Building to Westwood Boulevard, marching all the way to the threshold of UCLA at Le Conte before turning around. Black balloons, symbols of sorrow and solidarity with the Iranian people, trailed in the wake of dozens of American and Iranian flags.
Police estimated the crowd to be around 1,000. Protest organizers put the number between 3,000 to 4,000. The vast majority of protesters were first, second or third generation Iranian immigrants....."(thanks Phill ;)

Tuesday, February 11, 2003

We are a weird product of chances. A bastard phenomena as it seems, we still carry load of shits to have to organize ourselves and make this mess as predictable as possible. Only then, knowing the roots of both, is that we realize this is too big a stone to hold over our heads for too long. I found it in "the days of my life"...a nice english & persian weblog.

__Yahoo:"Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, smiles as he receives a kiss in his hand from a supporter who got past his security, during a rally to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution at Azadi Square in Tehran on Tuesday..."__FUCK!!!

...So the 24th Fajr film Festival finished & the winners took their prizes...I just like cinema & watching films but have no special knowledge, so can not give any technical opinions...but as a person who just watches some of films & kept track of news, I didn't enjoy the whole festival & think that something was wrong with it...also, khosro naghibi, who have a special & great weblog about cinema & I trust his notes very much, has written a report of the completion ceremony of festival & has something about this year’s festival; he thinks that this year, TV channels did support Festival a lot, & it was full of television films, television prizes & television judges & also the producer of the film that won the prize of the best film, was the channel one of TV, I think that it doesn’t sound very nice…
Anyway...let me tell you about winners...the film " The crazy ran out of cage"(sorry for the bad translation of the film's name) won the prize of best film , Niki Karimi won the prize of the best actress & habib Rezaie, won the prize of the best actor...you can also see more photos of the completion ceremony here & also here.

Monday, February 10, 2003

What about the future???

Again it's late at night & after a hard day, I'm here...tomorrow is 22nd of Bahman, The end of ten occasion of ten-day Dawn celebration & the 24th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic revolution...Oh, these words seems so heavy for me, & also so familiar, they are the things that we've been hearing years, & specially more at these days...days of celebration…

Do you want to now what is going on now here??? It’s so simple, just like other years…streets are full of colorful colors & most of the nights there is fire work display in some avenues of cities…TV channels are full of different programs about the revolution & many people tries to remind us that we must be happy about that big victory & again those old words about the Kind who was a evil & Khomeini who came just as a angel & made that dirty & damaged land, an Islamic, bright & great country… & again every ones seem to think all of Iranian people as some fool & powerless people who just have to obey peoples like fuckin Khameneii & other dirty mullahs & should always be just like the visitors of Iran’s movie…yeah., every one tell us congratulation for our present situation & in TV programs everything seem to be all right & great, so what could be the reason of sadness , poverty, captivity & all these bad words?? …nothing…yeah, as they say it really seems to be nothing.

Although, like every year, this exterior celebration is going on its common way , but I feel a special feeling among people this year…perhaps a kind of tiredness or unbelievable ness, no one can really believe what is going on & what has happened to our nice land…young generation of present, are like destroyed fruits of the Revolution & young generation of past, that now contains our parents seem not even being able to look at us, they can not stare at dark eyes of their children that is the result of their movements…so painful…& there is no cure for that nasty pain, so all they can do is denying being involve in making this situation…

Actually, Islamic revolution was a big & of course important act in Iran’s history but a foolish & unforgivable mistake…a big mistake that can’t be corrected anyway; who can rebuild all things they’ve damaged these days & destroy the rotten culture that they’ve made?!! Who can give back moments of our life’s best years that could be so sweet but were spent in nasty confusions?!! & after all who can tell us why???...
And now what do we have left to fight with or fight for? What can be done with these young guys who are so wick & different from those days’ young generation…the ones who have so many problems in their way of living & thinking , with so many paradoxes & the generation of spite & lie…

You know, I’m just a young girl that may have less bad experiences from this revolution than many others, so I think all Iranians can write even a book about what have happened to them…what a tragedy it can be!!!
Anyway…I don’t wanna finish this endless note with a foolish hope, like hope of things to get better, Islamic government to leave Iran, a perfect democracy & freedom or things like this…Although all of them are wishes are all Iranians , but al last I wanna wish enough soberness for everyone to recognize the situation & decide for the brighter future…
…so, it’s not all & there are so many other things to be said, written & felt…Actually the deep sorrow of the dead truth is never over…

Ok, it’s late at night, before the 24th anniversary of the Islamic revolution’s victory…& I don’t feel good at all…

__UN plays down Iran nuclear plans"...The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency has played down an unexpected announcement that Iran is to widen greatly the scope of its nuclear programme.
"This comes as no surprise to us," International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said on Monday...

...President Khatami announced on Sunday that uranium was being mined in the Savand area, 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the historic city of Yazd, and processing facilities had been set up in the central cities of Isfahan and Kashan..."__!!!

Sunday, February 09, 2003

Oh, yeah...I have some free days, so I can be online late at nights, what I really love...great!!! Although now I am a little sleepy but I don't wanna lose my golden opportunity of holidays ;)
...Listening to Blue, one love; & feel so good, so good, so good...

"...I refused to give up
I refused to give in
You're my everything
I don't wanna give up
I don't wanna give in, oh no
Everybody sings

One love - for the mother's pride
One love - for the times we cried
One love - gotta stay alive
I will survive
One love - for the city streets
One love - for the hip-hop beats
One love, Oh I do believe
One love is all we need

Late at night I'm still wide awake
Feel this is far more than I can take
I thought my heart could never break
Now I know that's one big mistake..."

...So the day before yesterday we decided to see “the fifth reaction” film on festival…so went to one of the best cinemas to get the ticket at 3 o clock, for the 7 performance, But we were just wasting time & it was impossible to get ticket, there were hundreds of people that had come since morning!!! The area in front of cinema had a situation just like a war, & there wad a very long line of people to the end of street. And there were also many people who had bough tickets before & were entering the cinema, because that was the first performance of the film, some of actors & actresses had come too…

In few words there was a real mess & so many boys & girls had made a crowded place…till about 7 we were just waiting but they didn’t even start selling tickets, & the number of people was increasing…Finally at 7.30 they said that the cinema for this performance is full , because most of people had tickets before, so none of persons who had waited for hours could see the film; but they said that there will be another performance for 11 to 1 at night & started selling ticket…although that wasn’t a good time but love of cinema & festival, specially for Iranians is another thing;) so people started buying tickets, & so did we… This was how we could go & see the film; it’s not very unusual, most of
the times Fajr festival is like this.

Ok, & now let’s talk about the film…actually among the movies I saw this year on Festival the Fifth Reaction was the best. This film was about some women that were teachers & each of them were symbol of a special group of Iranian women & had their own problems.
As a girl I enjoyed the film a lot, but as I read in news, critics don’t thing very good about the film, I should say that most of critics are men & the film was a bout women’s problems & some cruel things that some of men do to them!!!
Anyway….the cast included Merila Zareii, Niki karimi&… I think that this year with so many rubbish films, The Fifth Reaction will win many prizes.

Iran Denies Talks with U.S. Officials on Iraq War:"... Iran denied on Sunday a report that it had met U.S. officials privately last month to discuss cooperation in a possible war against Iraq.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that U.S. officials had met Iranians in Europe to seek a pledge of humanitarian assistance and an assurance that Tehran would not interfere in military operations against Baghdad...."

Saturday, February 08, 2003

It’s a pity that every times I have lots of things in my mind & there are special occasions , I’m not in a good situation to write…Like now that I wanna write about many things but I’m so busy & just have a few minutes…
Anyway… not bad take a look at what Iran’s leader has said about US recently….And also Later, I’ll have some posts about cinema!!!! Although some says that this year Festival is not like other years & is somehow boring, but there are special & hot news…I’ll write something later...

Friday, February 07, 2003

Yahoo News:"Protesters stage a public hanging during a demonstration by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Parliament Square, London, February 6, 2003. The protesters held a rally in London on Thursday to condemn the visit to the UK of Iran's Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, who held talks with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw."